WEBVTT 00:00:00.400 --> 00:00:06.080 There's a phrase that is often said, you never know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. 00:00:06.639 --> 00:00:10.800 And that is a very true statement I have found through the years. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:23.199 I don't know if you've noticed that when people who are Christians blow it publicly, they'll often say that was the worst day of their life and the best day of their lives. 00:00:23.359 --> 00:00:30.640 I had a student years ago who was in a fraternity and he publicly blew it at a party. 00:00:30.879 --> 00:00:33.119 And he said it was the best day of his life. 00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:41.119 And the reason it was the best day of his life because he was a Christian, and the whole time he was in his fraternity, he was trying to walk around showing people what a good Christian looks like. 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:42.719 This is what a good Christian looks like. 00:00:42.799 --> 00:00:49.280 So he's constantly holding up this image of himself that's not true, it's not real, it's it's a cardboard cutout. 00:00:49.520 --> 00:00:58.479 And so many of us do that, of carrying around the image we want to project to other people that we think, hey, this is the way that I want you to think about me. 00:00:58.560 --> 00:01:05.840 And eventually that thing gets to where it feels like it weighs 500 pounds, where you just feel like this is a heavy burden to carry. 00:01:06.159 --> 00:01:19.840 And the reality is that for many people, the day that they publicly blow it and their facade falls to the ground, and they have to stand there for people to see what they're really like, is the most freeing day ever. 00:01:20.319 --> 00:01:24.239 Because you don't know that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. 00:01:24.480 --> 00:01:30.400 And so we're coming into Galatians chapter 1 again, because we're in the museum, remember? 00:01:30.560 --> 00:01:37.439 And we are looking at this piece of artwork that's here in our Bible to direct us to the grace of Jesus. 00:01:37.680 --> 00:01:55.680 And this Galatians is important because it's a head-on, sustained conversation about something that we think we understand, and that is dwelling in Jesus, living in Jesus, believing in Jesus, saying that Jesus is all that I need, and Jesus is all that I have. 00:01:56.079 --> 00:02:05.359 So, if you're willing, if you're able, let me invite you to stand as we read Galatians 1, verses 6 through 10. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:17.520 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. 00:02:17.759 --> 00:02:25.039 Not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. 00:02:25.280 --> 00:02:35.840 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you, let him be accursed or eternally condemned. 00:02:36.319 --> 00:02:48.000 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.800 For am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? 00:02:53.280 --> 00:02:55.520 Or am I trying to please man? 00:02:56.240 --> 00:03:00.960 If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:03.280 Let's send to the reading of God's word. 00:03:04.000 --> 00:03:06.560 Let me pray and ask him to bless us as we dig into it. 00:03:10.560 --> 00:03:14.400 There's a great deal here, Lord Jesus, that is challenging for us. 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:18.560 And there's a great deal here that is freeing for us. 00:03:19.520 --> 00:03:26.479 And I'm afraid that I, as the person standing up front, am not going to do a very good job of holding forth all of these things. 00:03:27.199 --> 00:03:40.479 So I pray that you, in your grace, you would teach us by your spirit, by your word, that you would use my words to do that, but that you would go above and beyond all the preparation I put in, all the words that I've written, all the words that I say. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:49.280 That you would have a conversation with each of our hearts about the nature of living and full faith in the grace of our great God. 00:03:50.080 --> 00:03:56.319 Bless us and be with us and pour out your spirit as we now turn our attention to your word and we ask it in Christ's name. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:57.120 Amen. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:03:58.400 Please be seated. 00:04:05.280 --> 00:04:08.800 Now the Apostle Paul, you you probably picked up on this. 00:04:09.120 --> 00:04:11.199 He might be a little upset as he's writing this. 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:22.160 The Apostle Paul is astonished, alarmed, really, that these Galatians are so quickly deserting the one who called them to the grace of Christ. 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:32.319 They had experienced an immediate, deep, profound, life-changing response to the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and they quickly abandoned it. 00:04:32.720 --> 00:04:33.360 How? 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:34.800 Why did they do that? 00:04:35.279 --> 00:04:42.399 It wasn't because they wanted to go party, which is often what we think, but that was the exact opposite. 00:04:42.560 --> 00:04:50.560 They abandoned the grace of Jesus for laws and rules and regulations for self-righteousness. 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:52.000 So Paul is alarmed. 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:56.079 After receiving such an amazing gift from God, why would you give it away? 00:04:56.240 --> 00:04:57.279 Why would you abandon it? 00:04:57.360 --> 00:05:07.279 Why would you uh trade it away for something that is doomed to fail you, to enslave you, to destroy you, to sour you on the inside. 00:05:07.519 --> 00:05:09.279 And this is why Galatians is so important. 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:14.240 We all have this tendency quickly to desert the one who has called us in the grace of Jesus. 00:05:14.480 --> 00:05:15.120 This is what R. 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:15.360 C. 00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:16.480 Sproul wrote. 00:05:16.720 --> 00:05:25.759 He said, Grace is hard to grasp, hard to hold on to, even if you understand it, and hard to retain. 00:05:26.319 --> 00:05:28.319 And we see this with ourselves. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:31.120 Grace for us is often interrupted. 00:05:31.279 --> 00:05:33.360 Grace keeps slipping through our fingers. 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:40.639 How would you know, how would you know that grace is interrupted in your life? 00:05:41.360 --> 00:05:50.240 Well, you stop delighting, you stop caring, you stop sharing, you become sour about people, you become sour about life. 00:05:50.480 --> 00:05:55.360 You attend, you show up, but you don't carry it with you. 00:05:55.759 --> 00:05:57.120 And you start counting. 00:05:57.839 --> 00:06:03.120 You start counting and comparing what other people are doing and what they're not doing, what they're supposed to be doing, what they're not doing. 00:06:03.439 --> 00:06:06.720 You start complaining about everything. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:18.800 So I had a student 20 years ago, and after he had been graduated for a decade, he we had some sort of a function where he showed up at church for over the weekend and had a conversation with me. 00:06:18.959 --> 00:06:26.959 And he said the best advice I ever gave him as a pastor was to quit having his quiet time. 00:06:27.360 --> 00:06:32.079 Now I know you're thinking that's the worst advice any pastor ever gave to anybody. 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:44.959 But he had just told me in a conversation that he had had his quiet time for 187 consecutive days. 00:06:45.199 --> 00:06:47.040 That's a very specific number. 00:06:47.279 --> 00:06:49.600 So that meant that he had been counting. 00:06:50.079 --> 00:06:55.920 And what that meant is he was basing his righteousness on how often he was having his quiet time. 00:06:56.000 --> 00:06:56.879 And this is what he told me. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:08.399 He said it was great advice for him because uh he said what he found is he kept asking people about their quiet time to find out how regular their quiet time was. 00:07:08.560 --> 00:07:16.720 And he found himself becoming prideful and arrogant about this thing that's supposed to be a means of grace in our lives to help us grow in our relationship with God. 00:07:16.879 --> 00:07:18.879 Uh, you start comparing. 00:07:19.120 --> 00:07:25.920 When we start measuring ourselves by performance and good deeds, we begin to measure other people by whether or not they're doing it. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:35.199 And so it fosters a critical heart, and we inwardly begin to see the work of Jesus less and more the failures of others. 00:07:35.519 --> 00:07:37.839 And the Galatians were doing that. 00:07:38.240 --> 00:07:39.759 And we do it. 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:41.600 Everybody does that. 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.079 So, what is the gospel he's talking about here? 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:48.800 He gives a shorthand for this as he begins in verse 6. 00:07:49.120 --> 00:08:01.279 I am astonished that you are so quickly him deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel. 00:08:01.600 --> 00:08:11.360 So sometimes it's the grace of Christ, sometimes it's the gospel of Christ, but we're going to refer to it sometimes this morning as the gospel of the grace of Christ, just interchangeably with all these things. 00:08:11.600 --> 00:08:13.279 So, what is grace? 00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:17.360 Grace is God showing favor to undeserving people. 00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:23.040 So then we have to back up because most of us don't use the word favor in our day-to-day language. 00:08:23.120 --> 00:08:25.759 We might talk about a party favor, but that's about it. 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:27.040 So, what does favor mean? 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:28.639 Well, think about the word favorite. 00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:33.679 It means you have a good opinion, you're affectionate towards it, you love whatever it is. 00:08:33.759 --> 00:08:40.559 And what we see as we look at scriptures, God shows favor to the deserving. 00:08:41.120 --> 00:08:42.720 We see that throughout scripture. 00:08:43.039 --> 00:08:46.639 God shows favor to those who deserve it. 00:08:46.879 --> 00:08:50.240 Now here's the reality: that's only one person. 00:08:50.799 --> 00:08:51.759 He earned that. 00:08:52.159 --> 00:08:53.679 It's only Jesus. 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:56.000 He had the Father's good opinion. 00:08:56.080 --> 00:08:57.840 He was the Father's favorite. 00:08:58.080 --> 00:09:00.320 He committed no sin, no deceit was in his mouth. 00:09:00.399 --> 00:09:02.639 He cared for the widows and poor and the orphans. 00:09:02.799 --> 00:09:06.480 He loved people, he sought the lost, his heart was completely pure. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:14.159 And so when Jesus died, the father validated him and said, This is my son, whom I love, with him I am well pleased. 00:09:14.320 --> 00:09:23.279 So in that way, we see absolutely in Scripture, God shows favor to the deserving. 00:09:23.759 --> 00:09:25.440 But grace is the opposite of that. 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:29.279 Because grace is God showing favor to the undeserving. 00:09:29.440 --> 00:09:30.399 We call that grace. 00:09:30.559 --> 00:09:36.559 God loves us, makes us his favorite, treats us as if we deserved it when we really don't. 00:09:37.039 --> 00:09:39.039 So three things about grace here. 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:41.679 One, grace is free. 00:09:42.320 --> 00:09:46.000 Favor can rest on someone who has something to offer. 00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:49.200 Grace is a gift given freely and generously. 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:50.720 Grace is completely unmerited. 00:09:50.799 --> 00:10:02.639 It is not a reward, it is not deserved, it is bestowed to an unworthy recipient who does one thing, believes that God and Jesus is worthy. 00:10:02.879 --> 00:10:03.759 That's it. 00:10:04.080 --> 00:10:05.600 Grace is complete. 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.120 Grace is not what makes up the difference of our failure. 00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:14.720 Grace is a pure gift of God where he says, I'm replacing your account completely with the account of Jesus. 00:10:15.039 --> 00:10:21.840 So he completely takes all of the guilt of all of our sin and has placed it on Jesus at the cross. 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:25.679 And when Jesus died, he died for the guilt of all of our sins. 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:30.879 And then he gives us the merit and the righteous account of Jesus. 00:10:31.120 --> 00:10:33.519 So the righteous account of Jesus becomes ours. 00:10:33.679 --> 00:10:36.080 We have a joint bank account with Jesus. 00:10:36.240 --> 00:10:39.360 It is a complete and utter gift of generosity. 00:10:39.600 --> 00:10:42.080 And it is completely counterintuitive. 00:10:42.399 --> 00:10:48.320 Grace is not merely unmerited, it's demerited, and that's not the way the world works. 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:50.240 You actually deserve the opposite. 00:10:50.320 --> 00:10:56.960 You deserve condemnation, but you're instead exalted, a gift of benevolence given to someone who deserves the opposite. 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:04.960 And the gospel of the grace of Christ is this all of our sins have been placed upon Jesus. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:06.240 All of them. 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:13.360 All the sins that you have forgotten, and all the sins you can't forget. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:15.919 All of them have been placed on Jesus. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:24.960 And replacing that is the righteous life of Christ who deserves to have the good affection of the Father. 00:11:25.600 --> 00:11:30.080 All of the righteous acts of Jesus are attributed and accredited to your account. 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:31.919 All of it. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:33.840 And this was the Father's plan. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:36.159 He loved us and devised a way to redeem us. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:43.600 And the gospel of Jesus is that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. 00:11:43.840 --> 00:11:44.879 That's it. 00:11:45.360 --> 00:11:52.320 So the Bible says this kind of grace, this kind of grace that we see in the Bible is hard to understand and it's hard to believe. 00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:55.840 And that's what's going on in our hearts, and that's what's going on here. 00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:57.279 It's hard to accept. 00:11:57.519 --> 00:12:00.080 It can't really be that good. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:02.720 It can't really be that free. 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:07.200 It's counterintuitive because that's not the way we think about the world and the way that we think about God. 00:12:07.360 --> 00:12:14.159 And that's what's going on with these people who are that Paul's talking about, these false gospel promoters. 00:12:14.399 --> 00:12:16.320 What are they actually saying? 00:12:16.720 --> 00:12:28.720 It doesn't tell us here, but in Acts 15, it's a Jerusalem Council where they're settling the matter in some ways of what's going on with the Jews and the Greeks when it comes to believing in Jesus. 00:12:28.879 --> 00:12:30.960 Do the Greeks have to be circumcised? 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:36.320 And there's a group of people that are coming to Galatia who are saying what we read in Acts 15, verse 1. 00:12:36.559 --> 00:12:48.320 Some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:50.879 And so what they're what they're not what are they saying? 00:12:50.960 --> 00:12:51.600 What are they not saying? 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:53.360 They're not saying Jesus is bad. 00:12:53.600 --> 00:12:54.799 They're saying Jesus is great. 00:12:54.960 --> 00:12:55.919 Jesus is the Christ. 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:56.799 We believe that. 00:12:56.960 --> 00:13:00.559 And they would say that we believe that Jesus died and rose again. 00:13:00.639 --> 00:13:02.080 They would say we believe that. 00:13:02.320 --> 00:13:06.320 But what they're saying is Jesus alone doesn't save you. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:09.440 It's not grace, faith, Jesus. 00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:15.759 It's grace, faith, Jesus, plus works, the Old Testament laws. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:17.840 So they're adding on to that. 00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:23.360 And what Paul is saying is they are, this is why they're called Judaizers. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:25.679 They're saying you have to be circumcised and keep the whole law. 00:13:25.919 --> 00:13:28.879 But he's saying this is not a gospel at all. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:33.519 It's a distortion of the gospel, it's contrary to the gospel, it's changing the gospel. 00:13:33.679 --> 00:13:34.960 It is not the gospel. 00:13:35.600 --> 00:13:49.440 The problem is, and you probably have encountered this and you probably feel it in your own heart, as Christians living in the modern world, we know we have the scriptures, we have Acts 15 where they settle the matter and say you don't have to be circumcised, it's faith in Jesus. 00:13:49.600 --> 00:13:57.039 We have the book of Galatians, and yet we still kind of live as if we're still on the hook. 00:13:57.759 --> 00:14:00.639 As if salvation is a little bit like a mortgage. 00:14:00.960 --> 00:14:10.799 So when Rebecca and I moved to Mississippi a few years ago, we had enough saved up in our old house that we were able to buy a house outright in Mississippi. 00:14:10.960 --> 00:14:17.360 And we moved into it, paid it off, we didn't have any debt, we had no mortgage, we had any, we had nothing. 00:14:17.519 --> 00:14:22.559 So we moved into a house that was ours, and we never paid another dime to possess the house. 00:14:23.200 --> 00:14:26.720 When we moved to Florida, prices were a little more expensive. 00:14:26.879 --> 00:14:32.480 And so selling the old house in Mississippi, we we actually had to take out a mortgage on the house here. 00:14:32.720 --> 00:14:36.960 And so when we moved into the house, the house is not completely paid for. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:44.240 So we've been paying ever since so that we will eventually enter into our own home ownership. 00:14:44.799 --> 00:14:47.679 That's the way many people think about the Christian life. 00:14:47.840 --> 00:14:51.919 Is we would say, well, no, you don't have to obey to be saved. 00:14:52.159 --> 00:14:55.279 But we do think now that you're saved, you have to obey. 00:14:55.440 --> 00:15:04.720 You have to do all the work, you have to pay the price every single day of obedience to the law for God to accept you. 00:15:05.440 --> 00:15:07.120 Is that how it works? 00:15:07.360 --> 00:15:20.000 Because if we believe that Jesus fully died for our sins, if we believe that we have the righteousness of Christ fully, we're not, and it's done, then we have this idea we're still paying it off. 00:15:20.080 --> 00:15:21.200 But are we paying it off? 00:15:21.360 --> 00:15:31.279 When Jesus says at the end of his journey on the cross, he says, to telesty, which is a banking term. 00:15:31.600 --> 00:15:35.279 And it means we translate it as it is finished. 00:15:35.600 --> 00:15:40.399 But what it means in scripture, or what it means during that time period, is it is paid. 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:44.480 So it's like a big red stamp coming, and Jesus says, it's all paid. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:45.519 Pm. 00:15:46.000 --> 00:15:48.159 And it doesn't rest upon us anymore. 00:15:48.399 --> 00:16:00.240 And the problem that Paul has with these Judaizers, with the people who are saying you have to keep all the law, is that they're saying, no, no, you have to have a reason to obey. 00:16:00.399 --> 00:16:02.000 You have to, for some reason, obey. 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.399 Now, here's here's let me speak clearly. 00:16:05.200 --> 00:16:10.240 When you become a Christian, we do obey the law of Christ. 00:16:10.480 --> 00:16:19.679 Christ calls us to obey his commandments, but not as a prerequisite for salvation, but a fruit of salvation. 00:16:20.240 --> 00:16:29.759 Not in order to keep our salvation, but to live out the implications of a salvation we can never lose because Jesus has us fully. 00:16:36.879 --> 00:16:37.840 What are you crazy? 00:16:37.919 --> 00:16:39.039 You you fail every day. 00:16:39.279 --> 00:16:40.480 Ask the people around you. 00:16:40.559 --> 00:16:44.559 Now, I'm not going to ask Rebecca to say all of my failings, but but she could. 00:16:44.720 --> 00:16:46.240 My kids could tell my failings. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:48.240 I could tell you two or three, but that's it. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:49.600 I don't see them all. 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:56.000 We fail every day, and the gospel, the grace of Christ, covers us every day. 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:57.919 It's not a conditional clause. 00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:04.160 Until you realize that Jesus has paid it all in your mind, you're going to think, I have to clean up my life. 00:17:04.400 --> 00:17:10.000 I have to put my paper cardboard cut out and approach Jesus with that. 00:17:10.319 --> 00:17:12.480 And Jesus says, You don't do that. 00:17:12.799 --> 00:17:20.799 Come to me with all of your burdens, come to me with all of your sins, come to me with all your brokenness, and I will heal that for you. 00:17:21.039 --> 00:17:31.440 And the only way you would approach Jesus that way is if you were convinced I can't approach him without fear because all of my sins have been paid for by him. 00:17:31.839 --> 00:17:44.000 Until you realize Jesus paid it all in your mind, acceptance by God is going to feel secure or jeopardized based on your performance instead of the performance of Christ. 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:46.799 So that means we can approach him with everything. 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.200 We don't deal with our sin and then go to him. 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:50.880 We go to him with our sin. 00:17:51.119 --> 00:18:00.000 Now I understand the fear that people have when you start talking about grace, the way I think this passage is talking about it. 00:18:00.240 --> 00:18:08.480 Because the fear is what will people's lives look like if they stop obeying what God says? 00:18:08.720 --> 00:18:10.319 That's a proper fear. 00:18:10.799 --> 00:18:19.599 Paul addresses that in other places in Scripture about how we are called to live out the implications of the gospel in our lives and obey the Word of God. 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:22.960 But at this point, he's talking about another fear. 00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:33.920 Not the fear of what your life will look like if you keep the law, or if you don't keep the law, but what your life will look like if you try to keep it for the wrong reasons. 00:18:34.160 --> 00:18:36.079 Because Paul has lived that. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:39.440 He's seen legalism's ugly underbelling. 00:18:39.680 --> 00:18:42.079 It feeds the self-righteous pride of the human heart. 00:18:42.240 --> 00:18:48.480 It masquerades his obedience and commitment and righteousness, but it's a deadly parasite in the community of people. 00:18:49.039 --> 00:18:53.920 Paul knows what it does: reduces guilt, distance from God, performance treadmill. 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:58.400 It makes you easily controlled by people like the Judaizers here. 00:18:58.799 --> 00:19:10.880 And he knows what God wants here for his people freedom and joy and peace and affection and gratitude and true love. 00:19:12.319 --> 00:19:20.960 Legalism kills community, it kills joy and it kills mercy between us because we're measuring and demanding from other people. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:29.119 Legalism, righteousness must be based on uh legalism says righteousness must be based on my performance. 00:19:29.599 --> 00:19:31.200 And that's what the Galatians are saying. 00:19:31.359 --> 00:19:37.359 If you're gonna be righteous before God, God's opened the door through Jesus, you walk through it with your obedience. 00:19:37.599 --> 00:19:40.880 And you keep doing that every single day. 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:44.799 Earning, paying the mortgage, making sure it's paid. 00:19:45.039 --> 00:19:46.960 But what if it's already paid? 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:52.480 I had a Rebecca and had a friend at Clemson and then a friend, Clemson did horribly last night. 00:19:52.559 --> 00:19:53.920 Don't even talk to me about that. 00:19:54.160 --> 00:20:01.440 Um we had a friend at a university in South Carolina that will go unnamed today. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:10.960 And uh he did co-ops, you know, he was, I think, engineering, and he would go to an engineering co-op and then he would come back and go a semester and then come back. 00:20:11.119 --> 00:20:18.480 And he was back for what he was hoping would be his last semester in school, and uh, because he'd been doing this co-op thing for a while. 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:24.480 And halfway through the semester, one of his professors has uh called him into his office and he said, What are you doing here? 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:34.880 And our friend said, Well, I've been doing a co-op and I know it's been a long time, but I've been gone some semesters, come back, and so that's why I'm back, is because I was doing a co-op. 00:20:35.039 --> 00:20:36.240 And he said, No, no, no. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:38.000 I mean, what are you doing here? 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.640 You've already earned your degree. 00:20:41.119 --> 00:20:50.319 So our friend had been attending classes, working for a degree that had already been earned, and he didn't know it till that moment. 00:20:51.519 --> 00:20:56.400 The gospel is a degree that has already already been earned for us in Christ. 00:20:56.720 --> 00:20:57.920 He's paid for it. 00:20:58.160 --> 00:21:02.799 We're entering in by faith in him and him alone. 00:21:03.119 --> 00:21:11.759 Jesus has accomplished it already, and God wants us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, his grace in the gospel. 00:21:13.279 --> 00:21:15.599 But we say we know that. 00:21:16.559 --> 00:21:20.880 But Sprohl says we're quick for it to slip through our fingers. 00:21:21.599 --> 00:21:23.200 We lose the gospel so quickly. 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:25.359 We lose the gospel of grace so quickly. 00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:30.559 Why does grace slip through our fingers so quickly? 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:39.440 Now, I have the session of the church reading a book called The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson. 00:21:39.599 --> 00:21:40.240 I love the book. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:41.519 This is my third read. 00:21:41.759 --> 00:21:48.480 I'm enjoying reading it again, and I'm getting as much out of it as I did the first couple of times because we forget and things slip through our fingers. 00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:59.440 And in the book, one of the things that he talks about is why is it that we are so quick, so quick for grace to run through our fingers? 00:22:00.240 --> 00:22:06.720 It's so easy for legalism and works righteousness to cling to us and to hold on to that. 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:07.759 Why is that? 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:14.559 And so Sinclair Ferguson goes into this conversation about Eve and Adam and Eve in the garden and the serpent. 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:31.680 And he said, if you actually go through the passage where it talks about the serpent and what the serpent said to Eve, his first line, his first lie to Adam and Eve was about the character of God to create things and then put them off limits. 00:22:32.000 --> 00:22:37.599 To create beautiful things that he knew we would be drawn to and then to set them off limits. 00:22:37.759 --> 00:22:47.839 And so his first words to Eve are Did God really say that you can't eat from any of the trees in the garden? 00:22:48.160 --> 00:22:53.920 That is just like him to be that stingy and to set up good things that you can't have. 00:22:54.240 --> 00:22:58.559 Now, Eve did not respond terribly to that. 00:22:59.119 --> 00:23:06.720 What she ended up saying was, no, he said we couldn't eat from this particular tree, uh, and we can't even touch it or we'll die. 00:23:06.960 --> 00:23:08.960 Which God didn't say that last part. 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:16.880 But what she's done is she is bought into this idea is God creates good things to set off limits. 00:23:17.279 --> 00:23:24.799 And at that point, and this is what Sinclair Ferguson said, that lie got buried into the human genome. 00:23:26.480 --> 00:23:28.319 It changed the polarity of our heart. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:33.359 So now rather than being drawn to God, we are afraid and back away from. 00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:35.039 We mistrust him. 00:23:35.599 --> 00:23:50.559 And so what he goes on to say is that both legalism and what he calls antinomianism, being against God's law, are uh non-identical twins from the same womb. 00:23:50.880 --> 00:23:55.519 It's the same idea about God that's buried in our hearts. 00:23:55.759 --> 00:24:03.440 Except the antinomian person who says, I don't want to, I'm not gonna keep God's law, they're gonna say, I don't even want to be around a God like that. 00:24:03.519 --> 00:24:05.440 If that's what God's like, I don't want anything to do with him. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:08.240 And so they reject God and his laws. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:18.000 The legalistic person says, Well, I don't want to go to hell, but God is stingy, and well, I guess I'm gonna try really hard to keep his laws as best I can. 00:24:19.200 --> 00:24:25.440 But it's the same distrust and mistrust of God that's buried in uh in our hearts. 00:24:25.759 --> 00:24:46.640 But when you hear God announcing his presence to Moses and to Israel, and it's pulled through the rest of Scripture, it says, the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, forgiving wickedness, rebellion, and sin. 00:24:47.039 --> 00:24:50.559 So in Jesus, we see the freeness of God's love. 00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:53.920 God isn't holding back from us, he gave his one and only Son. 00:24:54.079 --> 00:24:57.200 And if he gave him, then what is he going to withhold from us? 00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:01.119 And the reality is in Christ he's given us everything. 00:25:01.200 --> 00:25:08.480 And it's this point that we begin to see the love of God and the gospel of God because he didn't withhold from us. 00:25:08.799 --> 00:25:15.920 He gave the best thing he could give to rescue us, to redeem us, and to make us sons and daughters in Christ. 00:25:16.400 --> 00:25:37.920 And what the reason that Paul has such a harsh tone here to our ears with the Galatian false teachers, with the Judaizers, is because Paul wants us to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that God loves us and has paid for everything in Jesus, and we come to Him freely. 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:45.279 And this is why Paul's words are so strong to the Judaizers, is they they had bought into the serpent's view. 00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:53.359 They weren't teaching the gospel plus, they were teaching the serpent's view of God, that God is a God who creates and holds back. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:26:03.759 And so what that leads us to do is to deny the goodness and grace and generosity of God instead of seeing how far the grace of God really goes. 00:26:04.640 --> 00:26:06.799 How far do you think the grace of God really goes? 00:26:07.759 --> 00:26:09.759 Does it really cover all of your sins? 00:26:11.039 --> 00:26:16.000 Did it cover the one that you purposefully did knowing that God says not to do it? 00:26:16.640 --> 00:26:18.079 Did it cover that? 00:26:19.920 --> 00:26:29.440 Did it cover the thing that you were engaged in in high school and you hid it from your parents and you hid it from your friends, and it controlled your life? 00:26:29.839 --> 00:26:30.480 That one? 00:26:32.240 --> 00:26:33.440 Does it cover that one? 00:26:34.880 --> 00:26:39.279 How deep does the love of God go? 00:26:40.559 --> 00:26:45.279 There's this old hymn, owe the deep, deep love of Jesus. 00:26:45.920 --> 00:26:52.160 Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free. 00:26:52.960 --> 00:26:54.640 So I want you to imagine. 00:26:54.799 --> 00:26:56.319 Uh you're on the seashore. 00:26:56.400 --> 00:26:57.920 Uh tomorrow it's Labor Day. 00:26:58.000 --> 00:27:06.880 So I want you to imagine you're out in the water, and uh you're standing, and it's actually, I guess it would have to be on the uh Atlantic side because you have more waves there. 00:27:07.039 --> 00:27:17.279 So you're in the water, the waves are coming, and when I was a kid, my brothers and I would go out in the water and we'd do this thing where we'd stand where we're about chest deep, and I was a shorter, so it was probably about here on me. 00:27:17.440 --> 00:27:22.720 And as the waves were coming, we would launch ourselves up and get over the top of the wave as much as we could. 00:27:22.960 --> 00:27:34.000 And then we continue doing this, and then you have to make it a little bit risky because we had testosterone, and so we went a little bit further, and so we went to what just barely our toes could touch. 00:27:34.160 --> 00:27:40.640 And as the waves came in, we had to launch ourselves even higher to get over the waves because the water's deeper. 00:27:40.799 --> 00:27:43.680 And it's like, you know what, how far can we actually go out? 00:27:43.920 --> 00:27:54.400 And so you go out a little bit further until you're barely on your tiptoes, and then you get the idea of like, I wonder how far I can go out and still touch the bottom by swimming down. 00:27:54.720 --> 00:27:55.599 You ever done that? 00:27:55.839 --> 00:28:08.880 So you got which is crazy because it's sharks, and so you you swim out a little bit further into the water and you do the thing where you push your hands backwards like this and you touch, and then you come up and you feel like you went 20 feet down, but it was probably only like two feet down. 00:28:09.039 --> 00:28:12.160 And so you come back up and burst through the water, and you're just like, that's that's great. 00:28:12.240 --> 00:28:13.599 How far can I go out and do it again? 00:28:13.839 --> 00:28:18.799 So maybe you get to maybe 10 feet, and then you don't do it anymore. 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:20.640 Um, how far could you go? 00:28:20.880 --> 00:28:23.920 20 feet, 40 feet, I doubt it. 00:28:24.160 --> 00:28:31.519 But then you get to the end where the continental shelf is, and you're never gonna get to the bottom there at all. 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:34.640 That's the love of God. 00:28:35.119 --> 00:28:37.200 You're never gonna scrape the bottom. 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:39.359 You're never gonna get to the bottom of it. 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:48.799 The things that you do, the things that you experience, the thing, mistakes that you've made, where you get to the point it's like, I didn't realize that Jesus was all I needed until Jesus was all I had. 00:28:49.039 --> 00:28:52.319 Those moments where you realize it's the grace of God or it's nothing. 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:57.920 Nothing is gonna make me right with God unless I have that kind of grace. 00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:05.680 So God wants us to know beyond the shadow of a doubt, his grace, his love. 00:29:05.920 --> 00:29:09.839 Uh it's not a measly handful that can slip through your fingers. 00:29:10.079 --> 00:29:11.440 You're swimming in it. 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:14.799 It's slipping through your fingers all the time as you swim in the grace of God. 00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:17.200 He loves you, he's crazy about you. 00:29:17.680 --> 00:29:21.920 And he you belong to him through faith in Jesus.